How to Spot an Influential Paper Based on its Citations
Saturday, July 4, 2009 - 17:35
in Psychology & Sociology
(PhysOrg.com) -- At first it may seem that the number of citations received by a published scientific paper is directly related to that paper's quality of content. The higher the quality, the more people read and cite that paper. However, the number of citations received by a paper depends more on when that paper was published; papers published early in a new field receive many more citations than those published later on. Although this effect has previously been known, a recent study has tested and verified the so-called "first mover advantage" with data from selected fields.